Do colleges care more about the cumulative gpa or my most current semester gpa? Because my cumulative gpa is 3.4 and the most recent is 3.75
A sustained GPA improvement trend – a single semester isn’t too meaningful – is a plus, but NOTHING is more important than one’s cumulative GPA.
Yes a sustained GPA improvement trend is important but from my own experience colleges will likely prefer the applicant who had a strong GPA all of high school. I got this from talking to an admissions representative for UC Davis, and for a growth trend to be considered it is vital to write an awesome essay explaining your improvement. Depending on your grade level(if you are a sophomore or freshman) then being able to maintain a strong GPA is good. I have similar stats to you, however my grades saw a large improvement junior year which I do not think was able to counteract my low cumulative GPA. However a 3.75 GPA is very strong so keep up the good work!! I have a friend who had a cumulative GPA of around 3.3, but had about a 4.0 his junior year, and had a 2100 SAT and got accepted to UCSB. So a lower than average GPA can also be counteracted by a high SAT score. However it really depends on what college you want to apply to, if it is competitive universities then a high SAT, and a sustained GPA trend is essential.